Uyghurs, Prisoners of the Absurd

NEW DOCS

Groups of Uyghurs, China’s Turkic-speaking Muslim minority, fled to Afghanistan in the late 1990s to escape persecution. But after 9/11 and the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, Pentagon officials decided that a small Uyghur village in a Taliban-controlled area was a terrorist camp and bombed it. Some of the surviving Uyghurs were then “sold” as terrorists to the U.S. forces. Patricio Henríquez’s film follows three Uyghurs who were taken to Guantanamo Bay and held for years, even after it was determined that they were neither terrorists nor guilty of crimes. Through interviews and candid testimonies, Henríquez documents the tense, suspenseful, and altogether frustrating odyssey of these “prisoners of the absurd.” This important, Kafkaesque story has finally been made public in Henríquez’s effective and deeply disturbing film.  JG

Director

Patricio HenrÍquez

Producers

Patricio HenrÍquez (Macumba Media II), Colette Loumède (National Film Board of Canada), Michelle Shephard (Creative Producer)

Editor

Andrea Henriquez

Cinematographers

Sylvestre Guidi, Patricio HenrÍquez

Original Title

Ouïghours: Prisonniers de l’absurde

Release Year

1978

Festival Year

2015

Country

Canada

Run Time

99 minutes

Subtitled

Partially subtitled